More short rib

Following the beef fest reported at reference 1, a couple of weeks ago we thought we would give it another go. Or to be more precise, we thought we would have another beef fest and on arrival at Ben the Butcher (of Upper High Street), found that he had some more short rib on display, so settled for 3.024kg of that. He also had an unopened bag of the stuff in his cold room, so it looks likely that he would usually have it, certainly towards the end of the week when peoples' minds are turning to Sunday roasts and suchlike.

He had a much more suitable saw for the purpose than I, so this time I got him to cut the ribs crosswise, which meant that they fitted inside our large Pyrex tub, originally bought, so BH tells me, to be used the other way up for chickens - although I don't recall it ever being used for one. On this occasion, together with a couple of onions and some mushrooms. Plus most of a small tumbler of water, well under half a pint.

Oven turned on at 125°C at 07:30. Meat in at 07:55, aiming for 13:00. Just about 5 hours, including resting.

At 12:20, drained off well over a pint of juices, from a tub which was pretty much full at that point. Meat returned to the oven, with lid on. Looking fairly cooked at this point.

In parallel, cook some rice (which I am fairly sure was brown although it looks fairly white below) and something more than half a chou pointu. No gravy on this occasion.

On the table.

On the plate. Meat good, substantial and hearty rather than fancy, Chou pointu spot on at 5 minutes boiling. 6oz of rice was rather too much: as it turned out 4oz would have been plenty. Some of the onion and mushroom from the bottom of the tub centre front.

Taken with our last bottle of Waitrose's Fleurie, as previously noticed.

By special request, baked jam sponge to follow, something we had not had for a while. For kitchen convenience, it had been stood in the warm top oven for an hour or more, but I would not have known that it was not fresh out of a hot oven. After a day yes, after an hour, no.

The jam is underneath. A dessert delight, not the sort of thing to be had from a commercial operation. They might do something which is superficially similar, but in the mouth not the same at all.

The next day, Sunday, tidied up and served cold, having decided the time before that it did well enough cold to not need mincing. Although it would have been an excuse to crack out the trusty Spong No.2 - last used, it seems, rather more than two years ago, as noticed at reference 3. Where it is described as a No.1: one more thing to be checked out in slow time.

The juices that had been poured off had acquired a layer of white fat on top and the brown beneath was nearly jelly. Roux'd up some of the fat. Added the left-over vegetables from the bottom of the tub and half the brown jelly from the jug. Which combined to make a very superior gravy - even if we were gravy dipping with brown rather than with white.

A slice of boiled carrot at the back, not the fried egg appearance here would suggest.

The meat was snacked off teatime Monday while what was left of the gravy and the jelly went into a hearty broth for Wednesday. Where Sainsbury's might have worked in 'farmhouse' as well as 'hearty'. 

Pretty good, but another time I will omit the parsnips from this stage. Rather too strong a flavour to set against that of the gravy and so forth.

PS 1: the half of the jam sponge which was left over may have served to convert our granddaughters to jam, something which they had spurned hitherto, at least with us. We shall see what happens next time.

PS 2: I now have my login the the Forsyth County News, which I stumbled across yesterday. They look to provide good coverage of local sport and to carry quite a lot of old pieces about Gwinnett County, but I don't think that I am going to get very far without paying, which is unlikely to happen. I will probably do better with reference 4. Inter alia, they offer geocaching, a sport which I learned about just this morning. While from reference 5, I learn that there are indeed a lot of churches - in a county with getting on for as many inhabitants as Surrey. I suppose that if you listed all the churches in Surrey, the list would not look that different. Maybe the value add here is the number of different brands on offer.

References

Reference 1: https://psmv5.blogspot.com/2023/10/short-rib.html.

Reference 2: https://www.bensbutchery.co.uk/.

Reference 3: https://psmv4.blogspot.com/2021/02/cotton-pie.html.

Reference 4: https://www.gwinnettcounty.com/web/gwinnett/Home.

Reference 5: https://www.gwinnettcounty.com/static/departments/elections/pdf/gwinnett-county-polling-locations.pdf.